A.N.

This is a true story my History teacher told us about one of her Prussian friends she had in Norway, he was 7 when the Russians started moving into Berlin in WWII. I thought it was way too good of a story not to share with everyone. I have Hetalia-ized it for your benefit.

The events in this story are true; names of the characters have been changed to protect their identity. (Plus I couldn't remember or spell them if I tried.)

~Hetalia~

Ivan sighed as he looked over the German city; the surrounding areas were shrouded in smoke as the Soviet Armies advanced to Berlin. Mother Russia's armies were advancing and God save anyone who stood in their way.

In the past days the personified nation had done nothing but watch as my armies had advanced, pillaging, raping, and murdering along the way.
Women and children, regardless of how much they pleaded all met the same horrible fate, regardless of age. The men were killed, if they were lucky.

It was horrendous.

It was war.

Ivan sighed as he tipped his hat back over his eyes. If his citizens wanted revenge than that was their decision. It's not like he hadn't participated as well.

The squad he was part of was moving through a lower middle class neighborhood of a town not far from Berlin, where the real fighting was. His wanted to see Germany's face when he admitted defeat, but his orders were here. If only they knew who they were ordering around, but it was an unspoken rule among the nations. When your people fight for you, you fight along with them as just another human.

They didn't need to know you couldn't die, but people found out.

We moved through the houses systematically; taking absolutely anything of value. Treasured family heirlooms, precious weapons, one sword even dated back to the third crusades and the creation of the Tectonic knights. (This would come in handy for rubbing in Prussia's face later.)

There was one last house, a small one. It had 3 bedrooms at the most. The outside was painted a cheery little yellow color, though it was stained from the smoke of battle.

My first lieutenant knocked on the door and yelled something in Russian, but it wouldn't do any good. This house would be just like all the others; the occupants cowering in fear, pleading for mercy.

To my surprise a young Prussian woman opened the door with a smile. She had long dark hair, but she had the dark Prussian eyes. Three young children cowered behind her skirts. The two girls looked to be 13 and 6, while the young boy was about 7 or 8.

"Come in, Come in!" She said with broken Russian.

Bewildered my men looked to each other for guidance. This was a first.

The personified nation walked in, wary of a trap. The young woman bustled around a table, arranging places for me and my men to sit. She motioned for us to sit down and hurried the oven. Still bewildered, Ivan took a seat at the table.

"This is the last of what we have. It would be wonderful if you would share it with us," The woman said smiling while carrying fresh baked, steaming bread.

She was offering us bread? Ivan watched as she placed the bread on the table. In Russia, bread and butter were hard to come by even before the war. It was a rare treat that we indulged in on Christmas and for special occasions.

Silently the woman sliced off pieces of the bread and placed it in front of us. The possibility of it being poisoned was swept from my mind as I saw her hand out the remaining pieces to her children. The fact that she went without did not go unnoticed by the purpled eyed man.

"What is your name?" The nation finally asked after taking a few bites of the bread.

"My name is Sophia. My oldest is Nina, and the youngest is Kyra. Geoff is the little troublemaker over there," Sophia said gesturing to each of her children.

"I am Ivan Braginski, and this is Comrade Nicolas and Comrade Leon," I said introducing myself and my company.

"Welcome to Germany, must have had a dreadful welcome." Sophia said with a light laugh.

Ivan smiled in spite of himself, "Hopefully it will be over soon."

Sophia nodded and cleared the plates, bringing back tea when she re-entered the room. Her children had long since fled the room. "The past years have been dreadful, what Hitler has done to our country and others. Anyone who spoke out about it disappeared, and everyone pretended not to notice. The past few months it has been all I could do to keep us alive."

"Where is the father?" Leon asked gruffly. Ivan let out a sigh, his men could be so tactless sometimes.

"He ran off with his mistress," Sophia said spitting out the words.

Comrade Nico reached over and slapped Leon on the back of the head.

"Would you excuse us? I need to discuss something with my men." The nation said quietly. Sophia nodded and left the room.

Leaning back in his chair Leon laughed, "What now?"

"I think we should protect them," Nico said as he adjusted sleeves of his uniform.

Ivan smiled one of his rare smiles. Even with his boss and the war, his people were still good people. Truth was, Ivan had already decided what he was going to do.

"We do need a place to stay while we're occupying the city. We can share rations with the family and make sure that they aren't harmed. They never harmed Russia anyway." Ivan said with confidence. He knew that for a fact.

Leon nodded and closed his eyes.

Ivan rose from his seat and walked over to the door Sophia had entered.

"Sophia?" Ivan called knocking on the door.

The door opened revealing Sophia, "Hmm?"

"We have an idea. For the time being we will stay here. While we stay here, we will make sure no harm comes to this family. Don't worry about having enough food. We'll use our own rations."

Sophia's eyes brimmed with unshed tears, "Sounds like a plan." As Ivan turned around he heard her whisper, "Maybe now my family will be safe."

AN

WOW.

Kinda hard to write. Anyway, like I said this is a true story from WW2. I think I'm the first person to write it down. I had to though, I didn't want it to be forgotten.